The humans that make up the Halo universe share our history. They exist in a world that witnessed the American Revolution, the World Wars, and Apollo's moon landing. They are what we become 500 years from now.
However, there are another set of humans that are equally important in the Halo Universe - ancient humans.
In the Halo fiction humans have existed for at least 160,000 years. Roughly 100,000 years ago these humans had discovered slipspace travel, allowing them to traverse the Galaxy in seconds. These ancient humans existed alongside the Forerunners, and were nearly their technological equals.
Despite being near equals, it was the Forerunner that had the most influence in the Galaxy, a fact humans came to greatly resent. The animosity resulted in the humans aligning with a species called the San 'Shyuum. The San 'Shyuum was humanities biggest trading partner at the time - and in a twist, they are the species that become known as the Prophets and lead the Covenant against humanity during the trilogy of games.
Humanity and their allies fought bravely versus the Forerunner and may have even won if not for monumental bad luck. At some point during the war with the Forerunner, humanity had first contact with the Flood. Immediately recognizing the threat the Flood posed, humans directed a significant portion of their resources to battling the Flood. Surprisingly, the humans prevailed against the Flood- pushing them out of the Galaxy. Unfortunately, a two front war was too much. Victory against the Flood resulted in defeat at the hands of the Forerunners.
The Forerunner were compelled to significantly punish both the Prophets and the Humans. The Prophets cut a deal, and as a result were allowed to keep their technology, but were relegated to their home world and forced to live under strict Forerunner supervision. Humans refused to cut a deal and as a result, their punishment was more severe. Humans were stripped of their technology and the memories of how to build the technology. They were "de-evolved"back to a hunter/gather state and were restricted to their home planet of Earth. How humans were de-evolved is never explained, but their are hints in the expanded universe that Forerunners had the technology capable of striping memories from individuals.
Despite punishing them, the Forerunners had a great deal of affection for humans. The Forerunner recognized a great deal of similarities between Forerunner and human DNA. This led the Forerunner to believe they had both been created by the Precursors - the Forerunner Gods. The forerunner were also impressed with the Humans ability to defeat the Flood - something the Forerunners had been unable to do. The Forerunner did not want to de-evolve humanity as they were afraid the secret to defeating the Flood may be lost. But humanity's refusal to accept a deal left them no choice.
And so, it was these de-evolved humans the Librarian collected and stored on the Ark for safe keeping. And after the Halos were fired it was these de-evolved humans that were used to "reseed" the Galaxy.
Fast forward 100,000 years - give or take- and humans have rediscovered slipspace travel and are once again traveling the universe. Colonies have been established to both ease the burden of a growing population (30-40 billion), and to provide much needed natural resources. One of these colonies is on a planet named Harvest - so named because of its bountiful agricultural resources. In the year 2525 Harvest becomes the first human planet to be discovered by the Covenant. The resulting battle for reach kicks off the human covenant war that is the catalyst for the trilogy of games.
There is more to discuss with the modern day humans, but what remains will be covered next week when I discuss humanities greatest weapon - Spartans and the Spartan program.
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